1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to an automatic telephone answering and recording device adapted to be connected to a telephone line wherein a prescribed message is sent to a calling party in response to a call signal and the message from the calling party is recorded by a sound recorder, and more particularly, to protection of the recorded message.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
A modern automatic telephone answering and recording device is required to have a remote control feature, that is, an ability of remotely controlling the device by sending a signal thereto over the telephone line. In prior art message recording apparatus, however, due considerations have not been made for the protection of a message which was recorded prior to such remote control as well as for the improvement of the operating efficiency of the apparatus.
More particularly, in the prior art apparatus, when a remote calling party has operated the apparatus and has heard the message by reproducing it from a recording tape (message tape) and if it is desired to preserve the message or to reuse the message tape in response to a subsequent call signal, it has been necessary to set the apparatus in a condition to await the next call signal by the manipulation of the operator or to entirely take up the portion of the message tape on which the message has been recorded by the automatic operation of the apparatus. This is necessary in order that a previously recorded message would not be erased by the recording operation of a subsequent new message.
Take up operation of the recording tape involves two problems. One relates to an inadvertent erasure of the message due to inaccurate take up operation. In other words, since there is a substantial blank space between one message and a subsequent message, it is extremely difficult to determine which one of the messages was recorded last. For this reason, the last recorded message is often identified erroneously. Upon inadvertent identification, a previous message would be erased by the recording of a subsequent message. There is no serious problem if a message once reproduced and heard were erased inadvertently. However, for certain reasons, operators often neglect to reproduce and listen to the recorded message. In such a case, the inadvertently erased portion of the tape may contain a not yet listened to message thus resulting in a serious problem. The other problem relates to the time required for the tape take up operation. Since a long magnetic tape such as a compact cassette tape is generally used as the message tape, the interval in which the message is recorded often amounts to one hour, and since the tape take up operation should be performed while searching for the presence or absence of the recorded message by reproducing the message tape, such operation requires a long period. Such a long period necessary for the take up operation alone not only wastes the time available for the operator but also decreases the efficiency of the operation of the apparatus because a new call signal cannot be received during the take up operation.